“But I also know that if she had other opportunities, she could have done anything. I can’t make it right for my mum. And she wouldn’t want me to.

“What motivates me, if you really want to know who Bill Shorten is, I can’t make it right for my mum, but I can make it right for everyone else.”

The story garnered praise and was dubbed as an election-winning moment, but the success was short-lived as Shorten was criticised for leaving out an important detail.

The Daily Telegraph reported that during her late '50s, Ann went on to become a barrister after graduating with a law degree from Monash University in 1985 with first-class honours. She practised at the Victorian Bar for six years.

She also was the founder of the Australian & New Zealand Education Law Association in 1991 and paid for her twin boys to attend the prestigious Xavier College in Melbourne.

But the aspiring Prime Minister shutdown the criticism by sending out a tweet on Tuesday night, saying the report was a new low on him and his mother’s legacy.

“I’ve told her story a lot in recent years. I told it two weeks ago when I launched Labor’s women’s policy. I told it again last night on Q&A,” wrote Shorten.

He then set the record straight about his mother’s story by releasing a speech from two weeks ago on how she went on to obtain a law degree from Monash University when she was in her 50s.

“When I was in my first year of law school, she was in her final year. She was her brilliant self and won the Supreme Court prize,” he wrote.